Friday, January 27, 2012

I hope you can tell that I am making a few changes here on the ole site! :) I certainly wish I knew more about coding and all that fun behind the scenes stuff!! But maybe someday I can hire someone to make it look the way I want it to. The biggest change is the URL.. I had been wanting to change it from jaredjenandandon for a long time but just wouldn't make the jump. So last week I bought the URL jenmirabile.com and I am so happy that I finally did! You shouldn't have any problems coming here from the old address ( i'm pretty sure it defers to this one but if there are any troubles please let me know so i can (try) to figure it out. :))

In November our sweet Andon turned 8. We wanted to do something totally different for him this year.

We got a babysitter for Adelyn and took him to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure for the day. We had a blast running through the park jumping on any ride he wanted to (except the big roller coasters, he was still 2 in. too short..bummer).

We hung out in the arcade for an hour or so playing shooting games and motorcycle riding games. Waited in line to meet the real spider man. And went on one of the scariest rides I have ever been on... Tower of Terror!!! I had never been on it before and neither had Andon so we didn't know what to expect but as soon as they fastened my seat belt and the floor dropped out I had a sinking feeling. Sure enough, it shoots you straight into the air and once you get to the top you have that terrible feeling in your stomach.. OHHH I hate that feeling!! I looked through the arm restraint to see Andon's face and that made it worse! Poor guy was so scared, as soon as we hit the ground we both said we'd never do it again!

We filled up on pizza, candy, soda and popcorn which equals perfection to my guy!

The day was long and full and Andon loved every bit of turning 8!!

We certainly missed our girl but it was nice to spend the day focused on him. :)

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Ok, so I lied. I thought the next post would be Christmas but while going through all my pics I came across our pics from Legoland.

My cousin Heather is a school teacher and her school was going on a field trip there. As are all the schools in Florida this year! But since we homeschool we weren't going to get the awesome price of 5.00 per child to get in! So when she called and invited us to go with her school we jumped at the chance.

I have to be honest, I didn't have much of an expectation of Legoland. Being that we live in Orlando and have Disney World, Universal Studios, Seaworld and lots more theme parks right in our back yard. But was still looking forward to taking Andon who is a major Lego fan. And I have to say that I was totally surprised. There was so much to do there!! So many rides that we didn't get to ride them all. Fun rides for the kids as well as the adults. Even Adelyn was able to ride a couple. They had great little areas for her to play and not feel overwhelmed by big kids and of course TONS for the big guys to do.

There were amazing sculptures made out of Legos. Full cities!! I think that was my favorite part. Walking through Las Vegas, New York City, Miami and lots more all made of LEGOS. So neat! Must have taken forever to build. There was even a full size SUV built out of Legos.

Andon brought along his best buddy Jordan who is also homeschooled. These two seriously crack me up. They were pretending to be brothers all day. They really are the best of friends who get along so well and have a lot of fun together.

We did everything we possibly could before they closed at 6pm but didn't get to do it all. So eventually i'm sure we'll be making a trip back! :)

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Happy New Year! We are 3 days into the new year and you can feel the excitement of the potential of what is to come! I left my little blog back in November :( so I have much to catch up on. I can't just skip right to where we are now!!

Last year (had to do it :) Jared and Andon were training to run their first race. They worked hard and were ready to run the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. It really is such a fun way to start Thanksgiving Day! Well, the day before the race, Jared was unloading the dishwasher and literally fell to the floor! I was just standing there asking if there was something I should or could do!?! He threw out his back!! He laid there until he could manage to move to the couch and that is where he pretty much stayed all day. He kept saying I still might be able to run but by evening time it was obvious he wasn't going to be able to. He called Andon in and said he wasn't gonna be able to run so Mommy would have to run it with him. Andon's reply... "ok." Not the brokenhearted answer we were both looking for. :) No big, he's 8 and was just ready to run baby. With or without either one of us!

These pics are from before the race. We were very serious about stretching out and thankfully Jared was able to come and watch along with Adelyn and Papa.

These are all iphone pics - insert New Year's resolution - use my darn camera's more! I have two great Nikon cameras and this year I am gonna learn all that I can about them and start using them. It's just been so easy to whip out my phone and take pics (especially since Instragram, i LOVE it) but I am really gonna start to take more and better photos this year! :)

After we stretched out and said goodbye, Andon and I headed to the start line. It was such a precious time standing there with my son waiting to run a race together. He seemed a little nervous but i'm pretty sure he was just ready to get this whole thing done because all of his cousins were coming to the house for Thanksgiving dinner.

Once the gun shot we slowly started to move. After about 3-4 minutes we got going on our pace. We talked the whole time about breathing, staying focused, some of the crazy people wearing turkey costumes (among other things) where Daddy and Adelyn were going to be when we were done and lots more. I was beaming with joy running with my boy. He is the most precious little guy. He has changed our lives in so many ways and we are continually thankful for the gift God has given us in Andon.

Just after we passed the 2 and 1/2 mile mark we were both pumped. Ready to see the finish line! Once it was in site I was looking everywhere for Jared and sure enough right before we crossed at 36 minutes and 4 seconds there they were. Screaming "GO ANDON, GOOOOO!!" As we crossed the finish line Andon screams out "I was born this way!" Trust me it was all very exciting and kind of emotional at the same time. Andon then looked and me and said "Daddy is so proud of me" and he was. When we got to him the tears were running down his face. Jared was beyond proud of the accomplishment for Andon and Andon had a permanent smile the whole way home.

Once we got home and showered all of our guests started arriving. Thankfully my father in law and I did most of the prep work the night before because there was still much to be done. This was only my 3rd time holding a dinner for that many people (we had 17 this year!) Whew!!

And that's it for Thanksgiving pics because Mama was in the kitchen ALL day! But loving every minute of it. :)